An Ever-fixed Mark
by chocolatequeen
Summary: The Doctor had had plans, once. Plans that had been derailed in a barren room in Canary Wharf. But Time has plans of her own, and has brought Rose home. Now, after the slightest deviation from the timelines, it's time for the Doctor to carry out his plans. Post Doomsday reunion proposal
1. Chapter 1

AN: As I worked on this story, I tried to figure out which of my other stories it followed. I ended up creating a new series, "A Slight Deviation in Timelines," which consists of "A Slight Deviation from the Plan," "You Can(t)," and "Voicemail from the Future."

The Doctor pressed a kiss to Rose's temple, then eased himself out of bed. When she huffed softly in protest and rolled towards him in her sleep, his hearts tripped into a gallop. It was a rhythm he'd been familiar with once, before he'd lost her to a parallel universe. It felt strange after two years without her, but he knew he'd get used to it again.

He brushed her hair back from her face, and she sighed and turned into his caress. _Sleep, love_. Rose wrapped an arm around his pillow and hugged it close, almost like she'd heard his telepathic encouragement. _Maybe someday…_

The TARDIS hummed in the back of the Doctor's mind when he wavered. The faster he saw to whatever she wanted him to take care of, the faster he could climb back into bed with Rose for a few more hours. He sighed, then put on his dressing gown and jogged to the front of the ship.

"All right, what did you need that you had to pull me out of bed for?" he grumbled when he reached the console room. The navigation panel flashed, and he leaned over to examine it.

He stopped breathing for a moment when he recognised the coordinates. He'd planned to bring Rose here, once… after they visited Jackie.

"Are you sure?" His voice was hoarse. "Rose has only been home for a week. Shouldn't I wait?"

The lights flashed, and the time rotor started moving on its own. As they flew through time and space, the TARDIS reminded him of all the times Rose had told him she loved him in the last week, with her words and her actions.

The Doctor raked a hand through his hair, then nodded once as the ship landed softly on Velliam. She was right, of course, he acknowledged as he walked back to the room he shared with Rose. After he'd lost her, he'd sworn that if he ever got a second chance, he wouldn't waste time. It was time to make good on that promise.

Rose was lying entirely on his side of the bed when he entered the room, and his hearts stuttered again. He stared at her for a moment, still hardly able to believe that she'd found a way back to him.

The TARDIS chimed softly, and he patted the wall in thanks. If she hadn't routed Rose's phone call to his past self, who knew how long it would have taken Rose to work her way back to him? Glimmers of the aborted timeline and an interrupted reunion had flickered on the edge of his time senses all week, but he'd refused to focus long enough to see what would have happened. It didn't matter anymore. Time had deviated from that course, and he couldn't be happier.

He put his hand on Rose's shoulder and shook gently. She grunted, and he chuckled—still just as difficult to wake up as ever. "Come on, love," he encouraged. "There's something I want to show you."

One eye cracked open, and she peered up at him. "Hmmm?"

"We've landed, and I want to show you something," he repeated. "A special, midnight stop."

Rose rolled onto her back and looked up at the Doctor. On most days, she'd tell him to come back when she was awake, but there was a nervous energy radiating from him that suggested she might want to go with him now.

She pushed herself upright and brushed the hair out of her face. "Yeah, all righ'," she mumbled, her voice still thick with sleep.

He beamed at her, then bounced back on his toes. "You'll want to dress warmly. It's cold out there," he informed her as he buttoned his oxford.

As soon as she was dressed and bundled up in a warm coat, he grabbed her hand and pulled her to the console room. Rose laughed helplessly as she trailed behind him, completely awake now and very curious as to their surprise destination.

A cold wind blew a flurry of snowflakes into the TARDIS when the Doctor opened the door. "Ready, love?" he asked, nodding to the outside world.

Rose squeezed his hand. "I'm always ready to go anywhere with you."

The Doctor's eyes widened, then the corners crinkled up when he smiled. "Well then, Rose Tyler. Allons-y."

They stepped out of the TARDIS together, and Rose sucked in a breath at the magical beauty of the planet. "Where are we?" She stared up at the stars scattered across the deep violet sky. A swath of light stretched across the purple expanse, illuminating the snowy landscape with a lavender glow.

The Doctor started walking, and Rose fell in step beside him. "This is Velliam," he said in a hushed voice. "It isn't the centre of the galaxy, but it's the closest you can get anymore."

Snowflakes fluttered down around them, and Rose tipped her head back to catch one on her tongue. "Is that the Milky Way, then?"

"Yes. Or Mutter's Spiral, as we called it."

It took Rose a moment to catch the significance of his words. The closest you can get _anymore._ As _we_ called it.

She stopped and looked up at the Doctor. "Are we… is this…"

In the pale light, she could see his Adam's apple bob. "Yes. This is the closest you can get to Gallifrey." He pointed up at a dark spot in the sky above them. "That's where it would have been."

Rose let go of the Doctor's hand and wrapped her arm around his waist instead. He draped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her close, and a moment later, she felt him press cold lips to her temple.

The Doctor sighed. Touching Rose's temples always gave him the haziest sense of what she was feeling, and tonight, he was buoyed by her love and sympathy. He felt the weight of the ring box in his coat pocket, but he didn't reach for it yet.

"Rose." She looked up at him, and dipped his head down to kiss her. For the first time, he didn't feel empty when he thought about his lost planet. How could he, when he held Rose in his arms?

It was easy to get lost in Rose's embrace, but today, he eased out of the kiss before he could forget why he'd brought her here. "I brought you here so I could tell you something, and ask you something."

Rose slid her hands over his chest and looked at him expectantly. A dusting of snowflakes coated her hair, catching the light and making her sparkle. "I'll listen to anything you want to tell me," she promised, "but don't feel like you have to share if it's too painful."

The Doctor had to kiss her again for that, just a quick brush of his lips against hers to express his gratitude. "I love you," he whispered when he pulled back. "But I really do want to share this with you."

Looking down at her, standing in the circle of his arms, it suddenly occurred to him that if he explained telepathy before he proposed, she might feel pressured to say yes to a bond when she wasn't fully comfortable with it. As much as he wanted a bond with Rose, it was more important to him to be married to her, in whatever way she would accept.

He swallowed hard; he'd been counting on having the time it would take to explain bonding to get past the nerves. Even as he thought that, he scoffed at himself—he was going to be a wreck, no matter how much time he had to prepare himself.

A furrow appeared on Rose's brow, and the Doctor realised he'd been silent for over a minute as he'd tried to decide on the appropriate order of events.

"Doctor?"

He reached into his pocket and wrapped his fingers around the box. "Well… maybe a question, and then something to tell you," he amended.

Rose put a hand to her mouth when he pulled out his hand and revealed what he held. Her gasp of surprise encouraged him, and he flipped the box open.

"Rose Tyler, you have been the very best part of my life since the moment I took your hand. You've been my partner, standing up for me, and standing up to me. When we were separated, I thought we'd never see each other again—but as always, you were stronger than me."

Tears were streaming down Rose's face, and the Doctor brushed them away with his thumb before finishing his proposal. "I love you so much, Rose. Will you marry me?"

She threw her arms around his neck, laughing through her tears. "Yes! Oh, my God, Doctor! Of course I'll marry you."

The Doctor picked her up and swung her from side to side as he pressed kisses to her face. "I love you," he whispered, over and over.

Finally, Rose slid back to the ground and gave him a smile that shone like the sun. "I love you, too. Now, can I see this ring?"

She held her hand out, and the Doctor pulled the ring out of the box and slid it onto her finger. Beneath the light of the Milky Way, the deep blue sapphire twinkled at them. Rose tilted her hand, examining the way the two thin bands of the ring twined around a series of diamonds.

"It's gorgeous," she breathed.

The Doctor took her hand and turned it gently until the light caught the soft pink metal. "The band is rose gold." He traced his finger over it. "Pink and gold for you, and TARDIS blue for me."

Her breath hitched on a sob, and the Doctor cupped her face between his hands. She turned her head and nuzzled into his palm, and he leaned down to kiss her.

As her arms twined around his neck, he was dimly aware that he hadn't mentioned bonding yet. Then Rose caught his lower lip between her teeth and tugged, and he forgot everything but the taste and touch of his fiancée.


	2. Chapter 2

**AN:** I write a lot of telepathic bonding fics, so when I started this one, I wanted to do something to make it feel different.

The Doctor would have been content to stand in the snowy woods kissing Rose forever, but only a few minutes had passed when he felt her shiver in his arms. When he looked down at her, bathed in purple light, he couldn't resist pressing one more kiss to her lips before stepping back and taking her hand.

"Let's go home, where it's warm," he suggested, and she nodded as another shiver shook her body.

"And then once we've cuddled in front of the fire and drank our tea, maybe you can tell me what it was you wanted to tell me?" Rose looked up at him as they approached the TARDIS. "Don't think you're getting out of that."

The Doctor shook his head vehemently. "I promise you, I have no intention of getting out of it."

That was absolutely true, even if thinking about discussing bonding with Rose made his hearts beat unnaturally fast. As if she picked up on his nerves, she brushed her thumb over his. The Doctor felt some of the tension in his shoulders ease; Rose's touch had always been able to calm him.

They left their outerwear draped over the struts in the console room, then hurried to the library. Two steaming mugs of tea were waiting for them and a fire blazed in the hearth. The Doctor thanked his ship silently, then sat down on the couch and patted the cushion next to him. "Sit with me, love," he invited. When she cuddled up next to him, he pulled a blanket off the floor and tucked it around their legs.

Once they'd drunk their tea and warmed up nicely, Rose tapped the Doctor's knee. "Start talking," she teased, looking up at him with her tongue poking out. "I'm pretty curious, since whatever you have to tell me you thought about saying before you proposed."

She withdrew her hand from underneath the blanket and admired her ring in the firelight. The Doctor caught her hand and brought it to his lips, pressing a kiss to her palm first, then to the ring newly adorning her finger. Then he laced their hands together and rested them on top of the blanket before taking a deep breath.

"There was a reason I brought you as close to Gallifrey as possible to propose. There's… my people…" Rose squeezed his hand, and he smiled at her in thanks. "I may look human, Rose, but I'm very definitely alien. And sometimes, that means I'm used to different customs than you are."

Rose furrowed her brow when the Doctor paused again. She started to tell him they didn't need to talk about whatever was on his mind, if it was so difficult, but then she remembered what he'd said before proposing.

 _I really do want to share this with you._

But she couldn't just watch him struggle to find the words without trying to help somehow. She thought quickly, then said, "Do you mean Time Lords got married differently somehow?"

The Doctor blinked. "Yes. That's… how…"

Rose shook her head. "It wasn't hard to figure out. You brought up different social customs right after proposing to me." She turned slightly and rested her free hand on his knee. "Go on then, Doctor. What was a Time Lord wedding like?"

The Doctor shook his head, then brushed a piece of hair back over her ear. "Rose Tyler, you are…" He sighed, then took her hand again. "Telepathic, Rose. Time Lord weddings were telepathic."

As soon as he said it, Rose realised she'd known that, from the start. It wasn't the first time she'd felt like she'd read the Doctor's mind, but it was the first time that telepathy was actually the topic.

"That makes sense, since you were telepathic and all." she said quietly. "Tell me what it was like, your…" She paused and frowned up at the Doctor. "I don't even know what to call it."

"A telepathic bond," he supplied. "Specifically in this case, a marriage bond. Partners were known as bondmates."

Rose nodded. "All right then. Tell me what a marriage bond would be like."

The Doctor rested his head against the back of the couch and tried to bring his breathing under control. She'd asked what it _would be_ _like_ , not what it was like. That implied… she seemed to be saying she was interested…

He shook his head quickly and forced himself to focus. _You have to tell her what a bond was like before she can make any kind of decision. Of course Rose won't reject the idea out of hand. That doesn't mean she'll be interested once she knows all it entails._

When he looked over at Rose again, the patient love in her eyes encouraged him. "I can only tell you what I've heard," he cautioned. "Even though I was married once, we didn't have a bond. They'd sort of fallen out of favour by then—the more we evolved as a society, the less interested we were in connecting with others."

Rose frowned. "That doesn't sound like much fun."

"Not really, no." He pressed his tongue to the back of his teeth, wondering which part of the bond to explain first. "A marriage bond is the deepest telepathic connection two people can have," he said, finally deciding to start with the part that was most likely to make Rose think twice. "We would still be two minds, but two minds occupying one space."

"Would we be able to read each other's minds? I mean, if your mind is in the same place as mine, it sounds like your thoughts would be there too…"

The Doctor clenched his eyes shut. He'd known Rose wouldn't like that part. "It wouldn't be as automatic as what you're imagining, but… yes. There is very little room for privacy in a bond."

"So…" Rose brushed her thumb over his knuckles. "I would be able to really know you? Every part of you, even the parts you don't like to talk about?"

His eyes flew open. There was so much longing in her words that for a moment, he thought he could actually feel it. "Yes," he whispered. "You would know the truest part of me. That's why Time Lords stopped sharing bonds—they didn't like how vulnerable it made them to one another."

"You would trust me with that?"

Rose's eyes sought his, and the Doctor reached out and cupped her jaw with his hand. "There is no one I trust more, Rose."

She smiled and turned her head to press a kiss to his palm. "Then I would love to bond with you."

The Doctor's hearts leapt, but he shook his head. "There's more," he cautioned. The TARDIS grumbled at him, but he refused to rush Rose into this. "I want you to understand all of it before you agree."

She rolled her eyes and smirked up at him. "I can't think of anything that would make me change my mind, but if it makes you feel better…"

He leaned down and kissed her, then pulled back and smiled. "It does make me feel better. This is a major life decision, love. It wouldn't be fair of me to let you accept before you know everything that's involved."

Rose gestured for him to continue. "Carry on then, Doctor."

"So… the word bond kind of implies this part, but just in case… Marriage bonds are unbreakable. During the bonding process, our brain chemistry is permanently altered to allow for the presence of another mind in ours. That's not something that could be undone."

Rose blinked, then pulled back and knotted her hands together on her lap. "Not ever?"

The Doctor gaped down at her. He'd never thought this would be the part of bonding Rose would object to. "I thought…" His voice cracked, and he cleared his throat. "You promised to stay with me forever. I thought… but if you don't want…" He swallowed hard. "We can have an Earth wedding, if this is too much. You and me together, Rose. That's all I want."

Tears welled up in Rose's eyes, and she shook her head fiercely. "Oh, no Doctor! That's not what I meant. I'm still gonna stay with you forever. But…" She bit her lip, then said, "But my forever doesn't even come close to yours. I don't know what it's like when a bondmate dies, but if your entire brain has changed to be joined to mine, and then I'm gone… I can't imagine that would feel good." She reached out and traced her finger over his left eyebrow. "I don't want to leave you suffering like that for centuries."

Relief flooded through him. "Oh! But you haven't let me finish." Rose arched an eyebrow, and he grinned down at her. "You are absolutely right—losing a bondmate was excruciating. Because of that, if a Time Lord bonded with a non-regenerating species, including ordinary Gallifreyans, the lifespan of the bondmate was extended to match the Time Lord bondmate."

Rose stilled and her eyes widened. "You mean…"

The Doctor felt like he was floating above the couch. This was the absolute best part of bonding with Rose, as far as he was concerned. "You can spend the rest of your life with me, Rose… and if we had a bond, I could spend the rest of mine with you."

Rose stared at her ring for a few minutes, trying to gather the courage to ask her question. The way he described a bond sounded… it was exactly like what she'd wanted to share with him, only she hadn't known it would be possible.

Even better, it sounded like it could be done without any of the hassle of planning a wedding. Rose didn't have any family left on Earth, and the thought of going to the effort of planning an Earth wedding just didn't appeal to her at all.

That just left the question of timing.

"Could we do it right now?"

The Doctor blinked several times in a row. "Right now?" he squeaked. "As in, right here? You in your jeans and me in my suit? No planning or… anything?"

Rose frowned up at the Doctor for a moment; if she didn't know how much he wanted to bond with her, she'd think he was having second thoughts. But why…

The bottom dropped out of her stomach. "Oh," she mumbled. "Is there some kind of… of ritual or something? Like are we supposed to wait a certain number of days or wear special clothes? I just thought… It sounds like a bond is something we could do in the privacy of our own home instead of having a big to-do. And I missed you so much while I was gone. I really don't want to wait any longer than we have to."

The Doctor chuckled and took both her hands. "We really need to stop talking at cross-purposes, love. I was just surprised you would be so eager. Believe me, if you're positive you want to share a bond with me, I don't mind not waiting any longer."

Rose squeezed his hands. "Then let's do it, Doctor. Right here. Let's get married."

A wave of intense joy momentarily choked the Doctor. _I take back everything I said before,_ he told the TARDIS. _Thank you for insisting I get up._

Rose's head was cocked, and he brushed his thumb over her cheekbone. "The first step is to connect our minds, like we would if I were helping you with nightmares." He put his hands on her temples and nodded at her. "You too, love. We both need to be an active participant."

A zing shot through the Doctor when Rose's fingers touched his temples, and he blinked down at her. _That feels like…_ He shook his head. _It must just be the anticipation._

But then he lowered his barriers and her mind flowed into his, filling him with golden light. The Doctor stared at her telepathic presence in awe. _Rose… you… you're telepathic._

The Rose in his mind walked towards him and took his hand. _I create myself, my Doctor._

In the library, the Doctor's fingers trembled on Rose's temples. Those words had terrified him once, but today, they slotted into Time in a way that felt so right, he couldn't be afraid. Rose was the Bad Wolf; she would always be the Bad Wolf. She'd created herself for him, and then he had turned around and regenerated into this form for her.

Rose gasped, and the Doctor remembered belatedly that their minds were connected. _You chose this body for me?_

He smiled sheepishly. _Not just the body. The accent, the quirky sense of humour, the willingness to visit your mother… I adored you, and I wanted to be someone you could love in return._

Rose blinked, and golden tears caught on her eyelashes. _You daft idiot,_ she said affectionately. _I loved that you, even with all your grumbling about domestics and griping about pretty boys._

The Doctor tamped down his desire to find out what she'd thought of his old self. _We can talk about that later. Right now, I think we have business to attend to._ He waggled his eyebrows.

Rose laughed. _Such a romantic way to refer to our wedding. But okay, let's get on with it. I feel like this is just… just a tease, a taste. And I'm ready for the rest._

 _Right,_ the Doctor said. _I'm going to start my end of the bond. When you pick up on what I'm doing, try to copy it as best you can._

Rose closed her eyes when she felt the Doctor move into her mind. This was far more intimate than anything they'd ever done before, and desire rippled through her. The blue of the Doctor's telepathic presence deepened in response, and she could hear him clear his throat.

 _Later,_ he promised. _I promise, once we're bonded…_

A flurry of images passed over their fledgling bond. Rose exerted every bit of her control to stay focused on what the Doctor was doing, and not how it made her feel.

Once she caught the rhythm of how he was winding himself around her mind, she stepped into the dance, twisting left when he went right, until the two cords of their minds were twined so tightly that they looked like a single strand.

 _One last step._ The Doctor stood still finally, facing her, and took her hands. A string of Gallifreyan flowed from his lips, and Rose felt her mental space shift as it merged with his. His thoughts and feelings sharpened, as if she'd been looking at them through a haze before and now could see them clearly.

The Doctor smiled. _That's exactly what it should feel like. Oh, Rose. How can you possibly love me so much?_

Wrapped as she was in the warmth of the Doctor's love, Rose couldn't even answer.

He let go of one of her hands and wiped away a tear she hadn't realised had fallen. _It's time to tie together our timelines. Are you ready?_

Energy thrummed through Rose, and she nodded eagerly. _Yes, please. I want to share a forever with you._

He spoke in Gallifreyan again, but this time, their new bond translated it to English for her. _Rose Tyler, I pledge myself to you for all my remaining regenerations. The gift that time has given me I now share with you._

Rose waited, but she didn't feel any different. _Was something supposed to happen?_

 _Your timeline refuses to match mine._

A familiar voice hummed through their mind, but for once, instead of just getting a sense of the overall thought the TARDIS was trying to share, Rose heard words.

 _ **We**_ _are the Bad Wolf, my Thief. You cannot shorten our timeline by binding it to yours, but we can lengthen yours by tying it to ours._

The Doctor sucked in a breath when he felt Rose and the TARDIS take his timeline in their hands and stretch it between them, until it matched theirs. Decades grew into centuries, centuries became millennia.

This was who they were now. The Doctor in the TARDIS with Rose Tyler, no longer just travelling in time, but now living with time in their veins. There was an absolute rightness in that knowledge that felt like a fixed point, and he knew that even if Rose hadn't found her way home to him now, this would have happened eventually.

Visions of Donna Noble and Daleks and a duplicate version of himself filled his time senses, then were quickly replaced by Rose and Donna laughing together as they talked to Agatha Christie. Dizziness crept up on him, as it always did when timelines shifted.

The feeling slowly faded, along with the glimpses he'd caught of their future. When the Doctor came back to himself, he was no longer deep in Rose's telepathic embrace. The fire crackled merrily in the hearth, the TARDIS hummed smugly, and Rose…

Rose was smiling at him with the golden light of time still faintly visible in her eyes. "I did promise you forever," she reminded him.

The Doctor laughed and pulled her into his lap. "Yes, you did." He bumped his nose against hers. "I should have known you would find a way to make that promise come true."

She tilted her head back, and that wasn't an invitation he could resist. He slotted his lips over hers, suckling at her bottom lip before he nipped at it lightly. Any cockiness he felt when he heard her moan disappeared when she scraped her nails through the short hairs at the nape of his neck.

 _Rose,_ he groaned as he swept his tongue into her mouth.

 _Yes, Doctor?_ Her tongue met his, then darted back into her own mouth as she teased him.

The Doctor gathered his rapidly dwindling self control and stood up, holding Rose up in a bridal carry. She shrieked with laughter and wrapped her arms around his neck, and some of his earlier smugness returned.

Rose raised an eyebrow and moved one hand around to undo his tie and the top three buttons of his shirt. He groaned and nearly dropped her when she licked at his neck before sucking on his Adam's apple.

"Just wait a few minutes, love," he said, his voice raspier than he'd anticipated.

She hummed, then pulled back and looked up at him. "Where are you taking me?"

He sighed in gratitude and adjusted his hold on her before pushing the door open with his shoulder and stepping into the corridor. "Back to our room. As comfy as that couch is, I have no intention of spending our wedding night in the library."

Rose's impish humour flared over the bond, and the Doctor arched an eyebrow. She winked up at him. "I guess we have plenty of time to christen all the rooms of the TARDIS," she mused. "After all, today is just the first day of our forever."

The Doctor's throat closed up, and he carefully set Rose back down on her feet in front of their bedroom door. "Yes, it is," he agreed. "And I can't wait to spend forever with you."


End file.
